The document discusses how brands can build themselves by taking a stand on social, environmental, and political issues and leading revolutions to create change in the world. It advocates that brands pick important fights, establish calls to action, create symbols, launch attention-grabbing campaigns, develop constant publicity tactics, and forge partnerships. By turning advertising into activism and leading revolutions, brands can meet business goals while also addressing needs in the wider world. The document argues that brands are now seen as more likely change agents than other institutions and audiences care more about what brands stand for rather than what they sell.

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Revolt Follow
We grow brands that turn around big problems.
Feb 12, 2017 · 4 min read
How to build a brand by changing
the world
1. Great brands are easy enough to build
Few professions seem to hold as little regard for knowledge as
advertising. At Revolt, we choose to build our approach not around
hunches, but on the shoulders of the IPA databank and the Ehrenberg-
Bass Institute.
Their evidence is clear. The di erence between big and small brands
isn’t their loyalty, their fans or their silverware. It’s how many people
buy them. To grow a brand you don’t need to be loved by the few; you
need to be memorable to the many.

2. 17/07/2018 How to build a brand by changing the world – REVOLTING – Medium
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And that’s the problem. Because 89% of advertising is forgotten. Not
blocked, not ignored, not badly targeted. Just badly conceived.
2. The formula for success is clear
When the brand comes readily to mind, market share is rarely far
behind. But our brands live in a world of cognitive misers and collective
indi erence. One where advertising is incidental to life.
We have two weapons in this ght against apathy: fame and feeling.
Aim for fame and fortune tends to follow. Because when you get your
brand shared, you make sure it’s seen. Famous campaigns enjoy four
times the annualised Excess Share of Voice e ciency.
But it’s feeling that is most predictive measure of business e ectiveness.
Communications that trigger an emotional response create the
associations that encourage system one decision making to favour your
brand. Emotional campaigns deliver higher sales, greater market share
and reduced price sensitivity.

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3. When you pick the right ght, your brand can ignite that rage in
others
Unforgettable brands rely on fame and feeling. And it seems that whilst
people will forget what you said, they will always remember what you
fought for.
Because when you stand for something, your audience feels it too. In
tracking, no advertising has delivered more emotion than that which is
ghting for social good.
And when you brand the change you want to see in the world, you turn
mass marketing into mass mattering. Of the most famous recent
advertising, that which sought to tackle an injustice enjoyed 31% more
shares and views than anything else.
Activist brands are the ones turning up on our news-streams and
phone-screens. So take a stand. Lead a revolution. Because when you
speak out on the social, environmental and political issues of the day
you take a shortcut to the beating heart of pop culture.

4. 17/07/2018 How to build a brand by changing the world – REVOLTING – Medium
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4. Learn from the great revolutions of the past
For our brands to become activists, our campaigns have to become
revolutions.
Pick a ght. Revolutions start with a no and end with a yes. Find a battle
small enough to win but big enough to matter.
Establish an action. There’s no point rallying an army without a battle
plan. Will they raise pressure, or raise funds? Do you want to shift
behaviours or shift minds? Make your audience part of the solution.
Lead a rally-cry. The call to arms that acts as your statement of intent.
Words that will become your chant, your sign-o , your #hashtag.
Create a symbol. An image that those on the inside are proud of, and
those on the outside covet. Make your iconography an invitation to
participate.
Launch a mindbomb. Give the world an image that can’t be ignored.
Spoon-feed the facts, force-feed the emotion. When everyone is silent,
you’ll be amazed how loud one voice can be.
Develop propaganda. Worship at the temple of publicity with tactics that
maintain a constant hum in popular culture. Never underestimate the
value of small multiplied by often.
Finally, forge allies. Insure yourself against rejection and criticism with
partners that can back you up.

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5. Turn around what you think a brand can be
The danger of becoming xated with all the new pipes is that we forget
about the communications we put down them. And in the race towards
production and distribution e ciencies we stop asking ourselves what
kind of ideas the world needs.
People now think brands are more likely change agents than charities
or governments. Our audience cares more about what we stand for
than what we sell.
This doesn’t mean corporate social responsibility or the odd spot of
charitable giving. It means looking beyond what you have done
internally towards what you could do in the wider world.
That world is on re. So turn your campaigns into campaigning. Make
your advertising activism. Because when your brand leads a revolution,
you’ll nd it doesn’t just meet the needs of the world. It meets the needs
of your shareholders too.

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